Moscow,љ 10 October 2008 – UC RUSAL, which owns a 25% plus two shares stake in Norilsk Nickel, today requested an Extraordinary General Meeting of Norilsk Nickel’s shareholders to elect a new, expanded Board of Directors that will represent the interest of all shareholders. UC RUSAL believes the current board has demonstrated that it is incapable of acting in the interests of all shareholders, has abused corporate governance principles and presided over the destruction of significant shareholder value. Following consultations with Norilsk Nickel’s minority shareholders, UC RUSAL is proposing

SKB-Bank has recently set up offices in Tomsk, Yakutsk, and Belgorod. The bank’s Tomsk representation is located at 51a Kirov St. Building 15, its Yakutsk office is situated at 20 Ordzhonikidze St., and its Belgorod office can be found at 17 Svyato-Troitskiy Boulevard, the bank’s press officer reports. The bank’s representations render their services to small and medium enterprises from 8.30 AM to 5.30 PM on weekdays. The total number of people living in the three cities where the bank’s new offices started operating comes to 1.2 million dwellers.

A large Yekaterinburg-based bank controlled by European shareholders has recently been reported to consider entering the real estate market. A number of investment experts claim the global financial crisis has led to foreign investors looking for relatively stable investment targets. The bank in question might actually come up with a mortgage program that will offer better terms than those of their competitors. UrBC was informed that the bank is interested in long-term and large-scale housing projects like Academic multi-faceted area development project in Yekaterinburg.

Chelyabinsk International Airport announced several carriers’ actual debt figures. S7Airlines (Siberia Airlines) owes the airport 26.23 million RUR, while VIM AVIA, Aviaprad, Kogalymavia, Aeroflot Don, and IrAero owe it 4.2 million RUR, 3.78 million RUR, 967,000 RUR, 880,500 RUR, and 124,700 RUR, respectively. At the same time, the airport says Ural Airlines, Aeroflot Russian Airlines, Kuban Airlines, Orenburg Airlines, and Uzbekiston Khavo Iyullari keep paying their bills in time. ‘Chelyabinsk International Airport is planning to attract more new carriers in order to be able to introduce a

Uralfinprombank’s net profit dropped by 44.17% in the third quarter of 2008 and reached 20.3 million RUR against 36.37 million RUR in the previous quarter. The bank reports this has to do with having to provide for the reserves that will make up for the possible lending-related losses, unpropitious re-assessment of their securities, or expenses connected with setting up two new offices in the third quarter of the year.

Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (part of ChTPZ Group) keeps working on a project that will allow the company to increase its ceramic flux output. The project provides for the construction of a new ceramic flux shop, the introduction of a wider range of flux-based products, and greater production output as well as improved quality. The project requires about ?18.8m altogether and is expected to be launched in the middle of 2009. All the machinery is to be supplied by a European manufacturer. Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant has already introduced the first section of the ceramic flux production

China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce registered URSA Bank’s official representation in Beijing on September 22, 2008. The registration was made possible after China Banking Regulatory Commission allowed the bank to set up an office there at the end of August 2008. The office is now located in one of the East Twin Towers right in the heart of the city. ‘URSA Bank has been cooperating successfully with China’s four major banks, including the Bank of China and the Agricultural Bank of China. The main idea behind introducing the Beijing office is to strengthen our ties with the

RBC.Rating reports Mechel Bank was given the 47th position on the list of Russia’s top 100 banks with the greatest subsidiary network in 2008. In addition, the bank was rated 71st largest banks in terms of volume of consumer loans offered per office. Mechel Bank currently operates seven subsidiaries, forty-eight additional offices, and four separate cash departments in Russia. ‘The bank’s getting featured in the rating means the company keeps on developing actively and dynamically. We are running fifty-two additional offices at the moment altogether and are thinking of introducing even more

Over 5,000 people opened a settlement account in the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development in January-August 2008, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by 20%. ‘When choosing a financial partner, our customers first and foremost think of our bank’s size, dependability, and market experience. These are the key factors that affect the quality of service a bank offers, the range of additional options, and the flexibility of any one product,’ the bank’s press officer reports. The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development has been working on the country’s financial market for

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by Uralprivatbank to sole traders despite overdraft went down by 62.32% (from 8.391 million RUR to 3.161 million RUR) in January-September 2008.

Bank24.ru keeps clashing with a Nizhniy Tagil-based boiler and radiator-manufacturing plant. The media wrote about the plant’s failing to implement development strategy they had adopted. The strategy was actually aimed at building up the enterprise’s share of the market, but the plant admitted that it was unable to get the loan needed to finance the technical upgrades. The company claims their ongoing disagreements with Bank24.ru, one of their shareholders, are to blame for this. Bank24.ru controls about 30% of the plant’s shares at the moment. Bank24.ru is reported to be trying to get full

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by VUZ Bank to sole traders for 91 to 180 days went down by 94.52% (from 13.141 million RUR to 719,000 RUR) in January-September 2008.

Standard & Poor’s rating department has recently demoted Uralsvyazinform’s credit outlook from Stable to Negative due to the telecommunications provider’s low liquidity. The company’s long-term credit rating was confirmed at BB-, the spokesperson for Standard & Poor’s reports. The rating agency explains Uralsvyazinform’s credit rating has been affected by the company’s poor liquidity indicators and a dire need for short-term debt refinancing as well as having to control the growing expenses and keep up with the net operating margin. The fierce competition on the regional mobile

Central Bank of Russia reports volume of loans given by UralTransBank to state-run for-profit organizations for 181 days to 1 year plummeted by 100% (from 1.466 million RUR to zero) in January-September 2008.

According to the Central Bank of Russia, volume of loans given by Uralprivatbank to sole traders despite overdraft dropped by 62.32% (from 8.391 million RUR to 3.161 million RUR) in January-September 2008.

Association of Regional Banks of Russia thanked SKB-Bank’s management for their support and help with the coordination of the 6th international banking forum called Russian Banks 21st Century. The forum was held in Sochi in September 2008, the bank’s press officer reports. The event coordinators said ‘SKB-Bank’s participation ensured the best quality forum both content– and logistics-wise.’ Based on the forum’s outcomes, SKB-Bank was awarded with an honorary diploma, while President of the Association of Regional Banks of Russia and the State Duma Deputy Anatoly Aksakov spoke about the

URSA Bank was given the 183d position on the Finance magazine’s Russia’s Top 500 companies list in terms of revenue volume in 2007. What is more, the bank proved the country’s fourth fastest-growing business, thus getting promoted by 144 positions compared to a year earlier. According to the magazine’s rating, URSA Bank’s profits reached 24.07 billion RUR in 2007, which was 144% better than in 2006. The bank’s net profit rose by 163% and came to 3.77 billion RUR. URSA Bank was rated the country’s 14th most successful bank in terms of revenue last year against the 20th position in 2006.

RBC.Rating reports Perviy Respublikanskiy Bank invested 2.47 million RUR in securities in January-June 2008, which exceeds the figures for the first half of 2007 by 421.94%. These data are available from the agency’s Top500 Banks rating in terms of securities investments in the first half of 2008. Meanwhile, the Russian stock market’s crisis has already led to a major downfall in many issuers’ stock prices.

Raiffeisenbank denied any rumors related to alleged introduction of limits on cashing of deposits. ‘We never had any limits on giving back our private customers the money they had deposited,’ the bank’s BOD member and Private Customer Service Director Roman Vorobiev said to an UrBC reporter. In the meantime, a number of banks actually do have some problems with interbank lending and cash at the time of the country’s economic crisis and the financial market’s problems.

The latest re-certification audit at MSA a.s. (part of Rimera and one of the leading Czech pipeline fittings manufacturers) proved that the plant’s produce met all of the American Petroleum Institute’s requirements. MSA a.s. has already got the API’s license that guarantees their produce’s great quality. Each manufactured item gets stamped with a special API monogram that proves its compliance with the institute’s quality standards. The re-certification audit procedure is carried out on an annual basis and is the obligatory proviso for any enterprise willing to be able to use the API monogram